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The discovery of mass burial sites is rare in Europe, particularly in rural areas. Recent excavations at Thornton Abbey in Lincolnshire have revealed a previously unknown catastrophic mass grave containing the remains of at least 48 men, women and children, with radiocarbon dating placing the event in the fourteenth century AD. The positive identification of Yersinia pestis in sampled skeletal remains suggests that the burial population died from the Black Death. This site represents the first Black Death mass grave found in Britain in a non-urban context, and provides unique evidence for the devastating impact of this epidemic on a small rural community.

This book narrates how, beginning in 1936, bodies buried in mass graves during the Spanish War and subsequent dictatorship were turned into monuments. The book describes how the production of monuments evolved and what forms this process and these monuments took; it examines how the monuments were incorporated into society and used to influence public opinion; and it argues that this process was not simply based on the formal logic of tradition but instead reflected a conscious plan with a specific and rational end goal. As such, this book puts forward the idea that the monument as a material object became an expression of the historical consciousness of its producers, relating how different actors communicated their memories into meaningful gestures while limited by the material reality of integrating the bodies into a novel artefact. Finally, it contends that the people creating these monuments did not just bury their dead according to a funerary tradition but also sought to influence society.

Mass graves are archaeological features with humanitarian and forensic import. Their creation and subsequent modification by natural and human agents reflect complex site histories and site formation processes that create a diversity of mass graves that must be captured with adequate terminology. The purpose of this paper is to encourage specialized research within the newly emerging discipline of forensic bioarchaeology of mass grave and mass grave-related sites as they occur internationally. In doing so, the authors present a typology for describing several types of mass grave and mass grave-related sites according to their archaeologically distinctive characteristics. Several definitions are provided to synthesize the experiences of internationally active forensic bioarchaeologists. A series of standardized definitions will ease communication between the forensic bioarchaeology and international human rights communities. We distinguish among the following basic types: surface and grave execution sites, permanent and temporary deposition sites, primary and secondary inhumation sites and, finally, looted instances of the latter. This endeavor is intended to promote communication with legal agencies such as the International Criminal Tribunals (ICTY/ICTR) and International Criminal Court (ICC).

We examined the concentrations of methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) in the pore air of a well-drained soil at which pig carcasses were buried over 12–13 years at depths between 50 and 100 cm. Sites included disturbed pits without carcasses, an undisturbed site, a mass grave (20 pigs) and single carcass graves buried at two depths with and without burial in a plastic bag. Twelve years after burial, the concentrations of CH4 were mostly below atmospheric values (∼ 2.0 ppm), showing that this gas was of little value in detecting graves under these conditions. Concentrations of CO2 were above values found under undisturbed conditions. Much of the increase is related to the decomposition of the carcasses, though disturbance during pit refilling and root respiration may account for part of the increase. The best indicator of burial over 13 years was increases in the concentration of N2O associated with inclusion of carcasses and with evidence of lateral flow of N2O in the soil. The N2O concentration is well above that of undisturbed or disturbed soils providing a detectible effect in sites with carcasses. [Display omitted] •Soil pore air measurements of CH4, CO2 and N2O concentration were made at a pig burial site over 13 years.•CH4 showed little evidence of pig carcasses while CO2 had a high concentration, derived from carcasses, soil organic matter and root respiration.•N2O showed very high concentrations in pore air related to pig burial, suggesting it may be used to detect burial sites.

While season-of-death estimation using cementochronology is routine in archaeozoology, its use is much less frequent in bioarchaeology. Based on the character of the outermost increment (bright or dark), two seasons (spring/summer, autumn/winter) can be distinguished. Although many studies mention its potential and possible use in forensic anthropology or bioarchaeology, few exist with estimation results. This study aimed to apply cementochronology-a histological method based on counting and assessing regular circa-annual acellular cementum increments-to 42 individuals from medieval mass graves from Kutná Hora-Sedlec (Czechia, 14.sup.th century) to estimate the season-of-death. The mass graves belong to two stratigraphically distinct groups; written and archaeological sources relate them to two catastrophic events (the famine of 1318 and the plague epidemic of 1348-1350). Using cementochronology, we distinguished two distinct seasons corresponding to the two groups of graves, with individuals from the first group dying predominantly in spring/summer, while those from the second group died in autumn/winter. Taking into account the typical seasonal dynamics of epidemics, the results would be more in line with written sources. However, during the evaluation, we faced difficulties identifying the outermost increment and detecting the dark (thinner) increment; we recommend including only young and middle-aged adults in future studies, due to the difficulty of evaluation, and to consider the readability of the tissue (often affected by diagenesis). In conclusion, cementochronology has potential in the context of estimating the season-of-death, but the technical possibilities for enhancing the outermost increment need to be addressed, and the amount of data analysed expanded.

The virtual experiments presented below reveal the counterintuitive archaeological demography of the Neolithic mass grave of Talheim and underline the importance of distinguishing between the demographic structures of living and dead populations, as well as between attritional and catastrophic mortality patterns. We utilise a new agent-based modelling approach called & Population Cemetery Simulator based on the NetLogo programming language and the Behaviour Composer of the modelling4all project, which allows us to extrapolate from dead to living populations and vice versa. Contrary to received opinion, we argue that the population of the Neolithic mass grave holds specific demographic information only, as it represents a pure catastrophic mortality pattern, i.e. a living population at a single point in time rather than the population of a conventional cemetery. The first experiments illustrate why the published demographic data (e.g. mortality, life expectancy, mean age at death) is misleading. It is illogical to utilise mortality tables devised for conventional (attritional) cemeteries in the case of living populations. Modelled populations with the published mortality rates of the massacre site are, furthermore, unable to stand up to plausible human demographic circumstances. In the second part, we evaluate the actual demographic information content of the Talheim sample. Comparative modelling illustrates that the Talheim population appears to be similar to possible living populations based on the mortuary record of Schwetzingen, an isochronal site of the Linear Pottery Culture (LBK), and Bärenthal, a site which dates back to the early medieval period (7th to 10th centuries). It is therefore very likely that the Talheim population is a representative sample of a living population in the LBK and might even represent a massacred village community in its entirety.

In this study, we present an experiment design and assess the capability of multiple geophysical techniques to image buried human remains in mass and individual graves using human cadavers willingly donated for scientific research. The study is part of a novel, interdisciplinary mass grave experiment established in May 2021 which consists of a mass grave with 6 human remains, 3 individual graves and 2 empty control graves dug to the same size as the mass grave and individual graves. Prior to establishing the graves, we conducted background measurements of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), electromagnetics (EM), and ground penetrating radar (GPR) while soil profiles were analyzed in situ after excavating the graves. All graves were also instrumented with soil sensors for monitoring temporal changes in soil moisture, temperature, and electrical conductivity in situ. Measurements of ERT, EM and GPR were repeated 3, 37, 71 and 185 days after burial with further repeated measurements planned for another twelve months. ERT results show an initial increase in resistivity in all graves including the control graves at 3 days after burial and a continuous decrease thereafter in the mass and individual graves with the strongest decrease in the mass grave. Conductivity distribution from the EM shows a similar trend to the ERT with an initial decrease in the first 3 days after burial. Distortion in linear reflectors, presence of small hyperbolas and isolated strong amplitude reflectors in the GPR profiles across the graves is associated with known locations of the graves. These initial results validate the capability of geoelectrical methods in detecting anomalies associated with disturbed ground and human decay while GPR though show some success is limited by the geology of the site. •Assessment of geophysical methods for imaging graves with buried human remains.•Novel experiment design of mass and individual graves with willingly donated human cadavers.•GPR, ERT and EM measurements from pre-burial to 6 months post-burial are presented.•Resistivity increases immediately after burial and decreases afterwards with increasing time after burial.•GPR is limited by presence of rock fragments distributed within the soil.

Understanding taphonomic patterns on skeletal remains, along with associated entomological evidence, remains a critical challenge in forensic and archaeological investigations. This study examines the specific impact of an Alpine environment on a WWI mass grave of 12 Austro-Hungarian soldiers (Cima Cady, Italy). Alongside general poor preservation caused by acidic soil erosion, a distinctive reddish staining affected over 80% of the skeletal elements. This was linked to the invasive root system of Juniperus sp. , a plant species typical of Alpine zones, which had penetrated the grave and bone cavities. Additional unusual deterioration patterns were observed on tarsal elements that had been in contact with leather boots. Entomological evidence included the presence of Pterostichus multipunctatus and puparia of Protophormia terraenovae , known to mainly colonise exposed remains. The combined taphonomic and entomological findings provide important insights into the postmortem history of the remains and the environmental factors influencing their preservation. Collectively, these results support historical records and testimonies of the burial dynamics from over a century ago, and highlight the broader forensic potential of such evidence in reconstructing mass grave scenarios, including the contemporary investigations of human rights violations or war crimes.

The Black Death pandemic (1346–53 AD) caused a 30–50% population decline across Europe. For the city of Erfurt in Thuringia, substantial human losses and corresponding mass graves are well-documented in historical archives. The aim of our study is to localize these mass graves in the nearby deserted village of Neuses in order to validate the written sources and to obtain skeletal remains for future anthropological and archeogenetic analyses. Here we present our integrative approach of historical research and minimally-invasive stratigraphic and geophysical prospection. Within the area of interest, narrowed down by historical accounts and GIS implementations, we applied percussion coring and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT). Coupled geophysical and coring sections help elucidate the late Quaternary sedimentary processes as an essential natural background for more detailed geoarcheological prospections. They allow to designate two distinct soil zones with consistent stratigraphical and pedogenic sequences: (1) a Chernozem zone and (2) a Black Floodplain Soil (humic fluvisol) zone. The distribution and extent of these zones co-determined the internal structure of the former village Neuses and the positioning of the presumed associated Black Death mass graves. Our approach enables a preliminary reconstruction of the medieval subsurface architecture, despite large-scale 20 th century ground modification. We identified a belowground pit structure, visible in both, the borehole sequences and ERT sections. Recovered bones have been AMS radiocarbon-dated to the 14 th century AD. Since confirmed and precisely-dated locations of Black Death mass graves are rare in Europe and are commonly found by chance during construction works, our systematic discovery of a possible plague pit may help to advance the research on the origin, spread and evolution of the Yersinia pestis pathogen throughout this pandemic as well as on societal coping mechanisms during epidemic outbreaks. Furthermore, our combination of methods holds the potential to successfully resolve the mapping of similarly demanding sites for archeological and forensic investigations.

This article presents the initial results of a multidisciplinary project aimed at documenting evidence of the genocide that took place on the northern outskirts of Chojnice, Poland, in the autumn of 1939 and in January 1945.